Canada Canada is a country in North America It has a population of 35 million people It is the second largest country in the world by total area and has the longest common border in the world – the border between Canada and the United States, which is nearly 9,000 kilometres long It has three territories, Northwest, Yukon and Nunavut It also has ten provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Newfoundland Canada has a cold climate Its capital, Ottawa, gets an average of 236 centimetres of snow every year In winter, the temperature in many cities remains well below freezing – for example, in Winnipeg, the average maximum temperature in December, January and February is – 15.3 degrees Celcius Unsurprisingly, Canadians are very good skiiers In 2010, Canada came first in the medal tally at the Winter Olympics in the Canadian city of Vancouver, with a total of 14 gold medals Canada's government is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state Both French and English are official languages and Canada has one of the highest standards of living in the world Canada is famous for its special police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Members of the police force are known as Mounties, because in the past, they used to ride horses while on duty Now, they only use horses on special occasions The Mounties are also famous for their red uniforms There are about 20,000 Mounties in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Toronto Toronto is the capital of the Canadian province of Ontario and is the largest city in Canada With 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populated city in North America! Toronto is part of the region known as 'The Golden Horseshoe', which is home to over million residents or approximately 25 percent of Canada's population It was first founded in 1834 by John Graves Simcoe The Great Toronto Fire of 1904 destroyed much of the downtown, but the city was rebuilt quickly Toronto is now one of Canada's most multicultural cities with almost half of its residents born outside of Canada The city is also the economic capital of Canada and home to the Toronto Stock Exchange Toronto's CN Tower was the world's tallest free-standing structure for 34 years and is a popular tourist attraction The city is home to the Blue Jays baseball team, the Raptors basketball team, the Argonauts football team, the Toronto FC soccer team and The Maple Leafs hockey team! Exercise 1: How much/How many Complete the following questions with much or many Then, find the correct answers in the text How _ people live in Canada? How _ snow does Ottawa get each year? _ How _ provinces are there in Canada? _ How Mounties are there in the Canadian Mounted Police? How medals did Canada win at the Vancouver Olympics? _ How of Canada’s population lives in the “Golden Horseshoe”? _ Exercise Read the sentences and decide: true (T) or false (F) Toronto is a city in Canada ……… It’s the smallest city in this country ……… It was founded in the 18th century ……… After the fire the city was not rebuilt ……… There are no other nations living in Toronto ……… It’s a financial centre ……… It’s not famous for any sports team ……… Exercise Match the word with its definition province ……… resident – ……… approximately – ……… population – ……… multicultural – ……… a b c d e the number of people living in a particular area, country closely to the exact number the part of a country outside of the capital or the largest cities someone who lives or stays in a particular place including people or ideas from many different countries, races